Family of slain Las Cruces woman wait for answers

LAS CRUCES – On Sunday, Desirae “Dezz” Martin, 28, planned to drive home to Salt Lake City and spend Christmas with her parents and friends. Instead, that evening friends and family mourned the Las Cruces native’s death in a candlelight vigil downtown.

Multiple friends and immediate family members identified Martin as the victim of a Friday afternoon shooting at a home where she was working her shift as a caregiver.

According to information released by Las Cruces police, a 38-year-old man believed to have shot Martin barricaded himself in the home after police responded to the first emergency call, which came in around 4:30 p.m.

“LCPD called out its SWAT, hostage negotiation and K-9 teams and attempted to make contact with the suspect, but to no avail,” the department stated in a news release.

At about 7:30 p.m., police said SWAT officers entered the home and found the suspected shooter dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Johnny Martin, her father, said Dezz Martin was doing what she loved in her final movements: Caring for others.

Dezz Martin returned to Las Cruces to be near family in the Hatch and Mesilla valleys in 2021. She had graduated from Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, where she studied criminal justice, criminal psychology and behavioral health, according to her father and social media posts.

“That’s what she wanted to do, is help people,” Martin said. “That’s why she was working at that house. She was just being her.”

Adri Florez, a cousin who lives in Las Cruces, wrote on Facebook that “Dezz was at her caregiving job when a tragic act of violence occurred involving someone known to the household. … There was no warning and no reason that will ever make sense.”

Martin also worked as a substitute teacher and had told her father of her love of elementary schoolers she served. She was also active in the local theater scene, where she sang and acted with the Las Cruces Community Theatre and No Strings Theatre Company, both downtown.

“Right now, our main problem is just bringing her home, and trying to raise money to do that,” Johnny Martin told the Journal. The family has established a GoFundMe campaign seeking the public’s help in raising $10,000 for moving her to Salt Lake City for burial. Johnny Martin said he had been advised the cost might be twice that. On Monday evening, more than $8,500 had been raised, with donors leaving comments remembering Desirae Martin as a kind spirit and a resilient coworker. 

Johnny Martin said details about what happened to his daughter and why remained scarce Monday, as police have advised him they are still investigating the shooting.

“I understand that but I want answers,” he said. “I want to know how a mentally ill person was able to live in that home and put my daughter in that position. And where did he get a gun?”

He added that he had considered how his daughter might have responded to the event if she had survived.

“She would have forgave this guy,” he said. “I can’t do that right now, but she would have.”